Center for Sustainable Development
http://www.csd-i.org/
LESSON PLAN
Lesson Plan for Presenting Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) System to the Community Members
Level of workshop leader
:
Level of Workshop Participant :
Duration of Workshop
:
Workshop Leader
Date
Workshop Level
Promoter
End-user; Community Member
4 hours
:
:
:
Workshop Assistant
Lesson number
Number of Participants
:
:
:
BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR LESSON PLAN
Workshop Position in Progression of Workshops:
 Previous workshop : General Participatory Community-wide Needs Assessment
 This workshop
: Simple and effective Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) System
 Next workshop
: Point of use water purification system.
Hand washing workshop for children
Protecting the community’s water system
Assumed Knowledge
An understanding that Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting will help eliminate or reduce to a great dependence on municipal water and also improve the quality of life in a
sustainable way.
Anticipated Difficulties/Problems
 Information may not be well received due to cultural differences between workshop leaders and participants.
 Community members may not be willing to bear the maintenance cost associated with the system.
 Community members lose interest in the long run as they don’t see any immediate benefit out of this system.
Solutions
 It is important that the promoter is from the same culture and speaks the same language as the workshop participants.
 Drawings and illustrations should be appropriate for and familiar to the community members.
 Illustrating the case studies of successful communities who have benefitted from implementing such system.
Useful Internet Links:
This lesson plan has been adapted from the Urban rain water harvesting system, and from several research articles as mentioned below,
1. Rethinking the contribution of indigenous management in small-scale water provision among selected rural communities in Cameroon.
http://www.environmental-expert.com/Files/6063/articles/4944/T8G7428L61753624.pdf
2. Rainwater harvesting for domestic use in Sri Lanka.
http://www.watersrilanka.net/Water%20Use/Supply/Ariyananda%201999.pdf
3. Water Quality Study and Cost-Benefit Analysis of Rainwater Harvesting in Kuttanad, India.
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Environmental_Studies/theses/ChristinatangThesis.pdf
4. An introduction to Rain Water Harvesting
http://www.gdrc.org/uem/water/rainwater/introduction.html
5. Rainwater collection and storage in Thailand: Design, Practices, and operational issues
http://www.faculty.ait.ac.th/visu/Prof%20Visu%27s%20CV/Conferance/22/RWHM%20paper.%20Visu.pdf
Page 1 of 4
6. Sustainable community-based safe water options to mitigate the Bangladesh arsenic catastrophe – An experience from two upazilas
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jul252003/141.pdf
7. Concept Paper - “Promotion of Rain Water Harvesting - RWH”; S. Zaheer Gardezi
http://www.erra.pk/Reports/Watsan/RWHConceptPaper.pdf
PURPOSE
Goal of Workshop: What workshop participants will be able to do as a result of the lesson?
The purpose of the workshop is to reinforce the importance of harvesting rainwater and explaining the water crisis that is worsening every day across the world and to
provide training in the proper implementation and use of the RWH system.
Objective 1: All participants will understand why the system is important and how it works.
Objective 2: All will be able to implement the system on their own and be comfortable in maintaining it.
Objective 3: All participants will successfully be able to continue using the system for potable water use and ground water recharge over the course of a year.
MATERIALS
 Gutters
 Coarse mesh
 PVC or GI Pipeline
 If available water quality testing tool kit
 Turbid Water
 Containers for water storage
 Sand of different gravel size and charcoal for filter
 Bamboo or betel trunks
 First flush valve
 Sand gravels, charcoal
 Large sheets of paper
 Letter sized sheets of paper
 Colored pens or marker pens
 Illustrations that explain the different parts and applications of the system in a fashion that is familiar to the community members participating in the
workshop.
 How-To cards without written words for workshop participants to take home.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF LESSON
Introduction:
Activity 1. Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) Introduction
Introductions. Ice Breaker: Sing a song or play a game.
Telling the participants what they’ll be able to do as a result of the lesson.
Guided Practice:
Activity 2. Identification of catchment area
Activity 3. Placing coarse mesh at water outlets in the catchment area
Activity 4. Methods for placing gutters to channel the water
Activity 5. Pipeline to carry the water to the storage or recharge system
Activity 6. Simple first flush system
Activity 7. Natural filter system
Activity 8. Recharge structures and Storage Facilities
Workshop Conclusion, Follow-Up, Monitoring and Evaluation
Activity 9. Conclusion
Activity 10. Follow Up
Activity 11. Monitoring and Evaluation
BEGINNING OF LESSON: INTRODUCTION
RWH Community Lesson Plan
Activity 1. Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) Introduction
Purpose
Introduce and Explain why and what is a RWH system and its advantages.
Time
30 minutes (including a 10 minute ice-breaker)
Page 2 of 4
Materials
Drawings/Posters
How-to Cards
Mesh
Gutters
Filters
If available water quality testing tool kit
What to do
Workshop Leader
1. Introduction to workshop
2. Introductions
3. Ice Breaker: Sing a song or play a game
4. Use practical examples of the RWH system and its role to the sustainable community development
5. Give an overview of types of RWH system and how the RWH system works.
a. Different methods of collecting the rain water
b. Different methods of recharging using dug well, percolation well, boreholes, recharge trenches/pits or water ponds
c. Difference among various filtering systems
d. Retrieving water for potable use
6. Show the benefits of the RWH system in getting clean water and a reduction in dependence on impure municipal water
7. Demonstration: Building a demo system or miniature model for effective RWH
Workshop Participants:
Take 5 mins to discuss the RWH system. Talk about what you do and don’t understand, what you do and don’t like.
Notes
GUIDED PRACTICE
Activity 2. Identification of catchment area
Purpose
Show the different types of surfaces that can be potentially used as a catchment area for the RWH system and also examples of places that cannot be used.
Time
15 minutes
Materials
Drawings/Posters
What to do
Workshop Leader & Workshop Participants
DEMONSTRATION: Guided practice.
1. The catchment of a water harvesting system is the surface which directly receives the rainfall and provides water to the system
2. It can be a paved area like a terrace or courtyard of a building. Demonstrate with onsite examples and illustrations.
3. It can also be an unpaved area like a lawn or open ground. Demonstrate with onsite examples and illustrations.
4. A roof made of reinforced cement concrete (RCC), galvanized iron or corrugated sheets can also be used for water harvesting. Demonstrate with onsite
examples and illustrations.
Workshop Participants:
Take 5 mins to discuss the bottles. Talk about what you do and don’t understand, what you do and don’t like.
Notes
Activity 3. Coarse mesh
Purpose
Explain the purpose of a coarse mesh to cover the water outlets at the catchment area with examples of a few locally available meshes that can be used.
Time
15 minutes
Materials
Drawings/Posters
Coarse meshes
What to do
Workshop Leader & Workshop Participants
Page 3 of 4
DEMONSTRATION: Guided practice.
1. Demonstrate the advantage of having a coarse mesh installed in the catchment to prevent large debris from getting collected. Demonstrate with different types
available and how to fix it in a simple way.
.
Workshop Participants:
Take 5 mins to discuss meshes. Talk about what you do and don’t understand, what you do and don’t like.
Notes
Activity 4. Methods for placing gutters
Purpose
Demonstrate simple methods to place gutters to channel the water.
Time
15 minutes
Materials
Drawings/Posters
PET-bottles of different sizes, shapes, conditions and colors
Galvanized iron sheet (20 to 22 gauge)
PVC Pipe
Bamboo or betel trunks
Iron or timber brackets
Hacksaw
What to do
Workshop Leader & Workshop Participants
DEMONSTRATION: Guided practice.
1. Gutters are channels all around the edge of a sloping roof to collect and transport rainwater to the storage tank.
2. Demonstrate how the gutter can be prepared from cost-effective and locally available materials like GI sheet, PVC pipe, Bamboo or Betel trunks.
3. Also demonstrate how to choose the gutter size and to fix them strongly so that they don’t sag during heavy pour.
Workshop Participants:
Take 5 mins to discuss turbidity. Talk about what you do and don’t understand, what you do and don’t like.
Notes
Activity 5. Pipeline to carry the water to the storage or recharge system
Purpose
Explain the users about different types of pipelining that can be used to carry the rain water from catchment to the storage tank or recharge well.
Time
15 minutes
Materials
Drawings/Posters
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) of different sizes
galvanized iron (GI) of different sizes
What to do
Workshop Leader & Workshop Participants
DEMONSTRATION: Guided practice.
1. Pipelines or drains carry rainwater from the catchment or rooftop area to the harvesting system.
2. Review of the rainfall intensity of that area.
3. Demonstration of selecting pipes based on the rainfall intensity and area of the catchment present.
Workshop Participants:
Take 5 mins to discuss Pipeline or conduits. Talk about what you do and don’t understand, what you do and don’t like.
Notes
15 Minute Break
Activity 6. First flush system
Page 4 of 4
Purpose
Explain to the users that a first flush system is essential to ensure the quality of the rain water that is harvested.
Time
15 minutes
Materials
Drawings/Posters
Valves to manually redirect the first few seconds of pour
Automatic first flush system
What to do
Workshop Leader & Workshop Participants
DEMONSTRATION: Guided practice.
1. A first flush device is a valve that ensures that runoff from the first spell of rain is flushed out and does not enter the system.
2. This needs to be done since the first spell of rain carries a relatively larger amount of pollutants from the air and catchment surface.
3. The water should be drunk directly from the bottles or from a clean glass.
Notes
Activity 7. Natural filter system
Purpose
Explain to the users how simple and efficient filters can be constructed out of naturally available materials like sand or charcoal and thus can eliminate expensive filters
available commercially.
Time
45 minutes
Materials
Drawings/Posters
Sand with different gravel sizes
Charcoal
Drum or earthen pots
What to do
Workshop Leader & Workshop Participants
DEMONSTRATION: Guided practice.
1. The filter is used to remove suspended pollutants from rainwater collected over roof.
2. The charcoal based filter is made of gravel, sand and charcoal, all of which are easily available. Demonstrate how to build a charcoal based water filter using a drum
or an earthen pot.
3. Demonstrate how a sand filter can be installed for treatment of water to effectively remove turbidity (suspended particles like silt and clay), color and
microorganisms.
Workshop Participants:
Take 5 mins to discuss filters. Talk about what you do and don’t understand, what you do and don’t like.
Notes
Activity 8. Recharge structures and Storage Facilities.
Purpose
Explain to the users how to construct simple storage facilities to store the rain water for potable use and recharge structures to recharge the ground water.
Time
20 minutes
Materials
Drawings/Posters
What to do
Workshop Leader & Workshop Participants
DEMONSTRATION: Guided practice.
1. Demonstrate the shape, material of construction, position and maintenance of the storage tank.
2. Demonstrate how ground water can be recharged using dug wells, bore wells, recharge trenches and recharge pits.
3. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of the different type of recharge structures and storage facilities and the maintenance associated with them.
Page 5 of 4
Workshop Participants:
Take 5 mins to discuss recharge structures and storage tank. Talk about what you do and don’t understand, what you do and don’t like.
Feedback
Notes
CONCLUSION AND FOLLOW UP
Activity 9. Conclusion
Purpose
To reinforce what has been learned and to discuss common mistakes and positive solutions from the case study examples.
Time
30 minutes
Materials
Drawings/Posters
What to do
Workshop Leader & Workshop Participants
1. Discuss and review what has been learned.
2. Discuss challenges, common mistakes and positive solutions observed from the case study examples of similar projects.
Workshop Participant Feed Back:
Take 5 mins to discuss the RWH system. Talk about what you do and don’t understand, what you do and don’t like.
Workshop Evaluation by workshop participants
A workshop evaluation form can answer a number of questions.
Did the participant achieve the goal of the workshop?
Could the workshop be improved to better meet cultural or practical needs?
Did the promoter do a good job?
Participant Assessment/Evaluation: What the promoter will do to see if the workshop was taught effectively and that the students have achieved the goal of the
workshop.
Watch faces.
Ask questions.
Listen carefully to group discussions; is everyone participating in the discussion?
Notes:
During the demonstration of RWH system the conditions have to be as realistic as possible. For example, be sure to use the type of meshes and gutters that are
available locally.
If possible, demonstrate water quality tests of the impure raw water collected from roof and purified using the filters discussed. Emphasize hygiene practices in dealing
with the stored water.
After the formal training, each household should receive support for installing the RWH systems.
Activity 10. Follow Up
Purpose
To ensure that participants will successfully be able to continue using the system over the course of one year.
What to do
Workshop Leader & Workshop Participants
1. Household Visits
It is important that individual contact and relation of trust is established between the promoter and the user. The most important tool for maintaining contact is the
household visit.
During the first month after the training, the RWH users are visited once each week. Then the users are visited once each month during the first year of practice. One
RWH promoter should be available for the support and monitoring of the users.
Activity 11. Monitoring and Evaluation
Purpose
Page 6 of 4
To ensure that promoters will successfully be able to monitor and evaluate the results of including the RWH system in the daily lives of End-Users.
Time
Materials
What to do
Workshop Leader & Workshop Participants
1. Monitoring and Evaluation of workshop application of RWH system.
Tools for monitoring: Questionnaire, Pocket Voting Tool, Community gatherings, Observation
What kind of indicators should be monitored?

Are the participants using RWH in their daily lives? Y/N?

Number of users

Correct application

Water borne disease incidence

Ground water quality testing

Water quality testing from storage tanks

Condition and type of the recharge structures used
Page 7 of 4